Mr Wei said: "We think Europe is not as pessimistic as most people think and that the US is not as optimistic as most people think. Emerging markets are brighter than most people think. Brazil and Indonesia, from our numbers they are stronger after the crisis."

He added that buying patterns of from UK retailers suggested the Christmas this year would be "modest".

However, he was optimistic about British exports, with 16pc of Alibaba's 700,000 UK-based users selling on its international trading platform rather than buying. This rate compared with only 5pc of its 1.9m users in the US and 6pc of those in Germany. "The UK has the second fastest growth outside of China, after India," said Mr Wei.

Alibaba founder Jack Ma, Mr Wei and eight other board members are spending a week in the UK and France to talk to the likes of Stephen Green, chairman of HSBC, and senior executives from Virgin Group, Reed, BNP Paribas and Rothschild. "We want to learn a lot from successful leading British and French companies with a long history," said Mr Wei.

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